Young film actors - Unit 7

C1 Advanced · Gapped Text · Complete Advanced, Cambridge University Press

You are going to read an article about young film actors. Six paragraphs have been removed from the article. Choose from the paragraphs A-G the one which fits each gap (1–6). There is one extra paragraph which you do not need to use.

Young film actors

One person responsible for finding young actors explained that she sometimes goes into schools. She does improvisations in which students make up scenes such as pretending one of them has had something stolen. ‘I’m looking for clever, self-assured young people who can think on their feet,’ she says.

After all, not every film critic is going to love these young actors’ work, which could be especially hard to take at such a young age. It’s easy to imagine that the long-term effects could be damaging.

Despite this, however, the actor believes entering the profession so early closed as many doors as it opened. Although she got to do many crazy things on screen, the actor always regretted missing out on school, and has now started a university degree, to help build a career away from film.

Increasingly skilled people working in film, from agents through to film directors, are probably the secret behind why there are such good young actors around at the moment, receiving rave reviews.

In fact, in one case this even included an ex-soldier, who mentored a young actor for a major role in an adventure film. He passed on a number of martial arts skills, teaching him the basics of kung fu, karate and judo. So young stars are generally finding their needs being taken far more seriously.

To add to these worries, despite having been given permission to be on set during filming, there was still a reluctance on her part to observe the filming process, as she couldn’t bear to see him make mistakes. However, she eventually found the courage – and it turned out to be a wonderful experience.

They may not all manage to negotiate the transition into adult roles. But the financial returns for their work are astonishing, with some making it into the ‘rich list’ of the most highly paid celebrities.

Starring in an award-winning film, perhaps when you’ve barely reached your teens, may seem like a dream come true for many of us. But is it really the amazing experience it appears to be? There are a growing number of young actors coming into the profession, on whose shoulders may rest the responsibility for the success of multi-million-pound films. And perhaps more importantly, what happens to these young actors further down the line?

What’s more, some casting directors suggest that young actors are better now than they were in the past, possibly because they have access to so many films, and they watch all the time. So how are they chosen for parts?

It may be that these painstaking searches undertaken by casting directors are one reason for the quality of the actors turning up on screen. And another may be that directors are working differently with these young actors to bring out their own natural energy in their acting, and even creatively choreographing some of the action scenes, by bringing in specialists.

Indeed, compared to the past, current young actors do seem to be amazingly well looked after during filming. One former young star recalls that, having been chosen for a major role in a film, she flew to another country, where filming would take place over several months. On arrival at the airport, the actor met her chaperone, the person assigned to keep an eye on her for the duration of the shoot. The young actor had spent very little time away from home, but despite her concerns, she says the chaperone that she was given helped her settle into her new life abroad – and the filming went brilliantly.

And what effect does living with a young star have on the rest of the family? One young actor’s mother explains that she suffered from sleepless nights before signing his contract for a major film. Her son had been spotted by a casting director at an after-school theatre group. ‘I was incredibly nervous for him and what this was potentially unleashing in his life,’ she says.

However, she still feels mixed emotions about her son’s acting, because of his age, which she considers to be an important developmental period for a young person. ‘We haven’t yet had to deal with a bad review,’ she says. ‘How are we going to handle that, if and when it happens?’

On balance, though, and judging by the numbers who have made it through and become successful as adults, there’s a good chance that young actors today will emerge unscathed from the whole experience of early stardom.

Starring in an award-winning film, perhaps when you’ve barely reached your teens, may seem like a dream come true for many of us. But is it really the amazing experience it appears to be? There are a growing number of young actors coming into the profession, on whose shoulders may rest the responsibility for the success of multi-million-pound films. And perhaps more importantly, what happens to these young actors further down the line? ___ What’s more, some casting directors suggest that young actors are better now than they were in the past, possibly because they have access to so many films, and they watch all the time. So how are they chosen for parts? ___ It may be that these painstaking searches undertaken by casting directors are one reason for the quality of the actors turning up on screen. And another may be that directors are working differently with these young actors to bring out their own natural energy in their acting, and even creatively choreographing some of the action scenes, by bringing in specialists. ___ Indeed, compared to the past, current young actors do seem to be amazingly well looked after during filming. One former young star recalls that, having been chosen for a major role in a film, she flew to another country, where filming would take place over several months. On arrival at the airport, the actor met her chaperone, the person assigned to keep an eye on her for the duration of the shoot. The young actor had spent very little time away from home, but despite her concerns, she says the chaperone that she was given helped her settle into her new life abroad – and the filming went brilliantly. ___ And what effect does living with a young star have on the rest of the family? One young actor’s mother explains that she suffered from sleepless nights before signing his contract for a major film. Her son had been spotted by a casting director at an after-school theatre group. ‘I was incredibly nervous for him and what this was potentially unleashing in his life,’ she says. ___ However, she still feels mixed emotions about her son’s acting, because of his age, which she considers to be an important developmental period for a young person. ‘We haven’t yet had to deal with a bad review,’ she says. ‘How are we going to handle that, if and when it happens?’ ___ On balance, though, and judging by the numbers who have made it through and become successful as adults, there’s a good chance that young actors today will emerge unscathed from the whole experience of early stardom.

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